Like ITV on a Saturday night, I've always regarded BBC3 as a televisual accident black spot. If you wade in recklessly and things end badly, then there's no one to blame but yourself for going there in the first place. But tonight, at 9pm, it's well worth ignoring the usual risk factor to see one of the most enjoyable new shows around, the Canadian science-fiction thriller Orphan Black.

In the opening moments of this 10-part series, we join street-smart Brit Sarah Manning as she, with great purpose, rolls into an unidentified city, which doesn't seem to be welcoming her. Seconds after alighting her train and briefly having what sounds like a heated phone call, she wanders along the station platform to investigate a clearly troubled woman who is crying, pacing and carefully arranging her belongings. The stranger faces Sarah. They are shockingly identical. The stranger then steps into the path of an oncoming train. Sarah, shocked and confused but with her opportunistic instincts intact, grabs her doppelgänger's handbag and quickly exits the scene.

So begins a wonderfully complex drama that is compelling from the off. The central performance, or rather performances, of Tatiana Maslany, who plays both women in the opening and, we quickly find out in tonight's two introductory episodes, a number of other characters, is the main reason Orphan Black works so well. It's an acting gig any performer would love to get, but few could actually handle. For the little-known but hard-working Canadian actress Maslany, it's a star-making turn that has already seen her beat Claire Danes, Elisabeth Moss, Julianna Margulies and others at this year's critic's choice television awards. In fact, her stock has risen to the point where she's just completed a two-episode guest spot on Parks and Recreation as Tom Haverford's love interest.

We'll return here in a few weeks to discuss plot developments in depth, so pay attention to how Maslany adopts varied accents, postures, attitudes and other elements to construct different women who, for reasons we slowly discover, all share the same face. Maslany shows real commitment and stamina as well as ability.

There are others to enjoy here, too. Jordan Gavaris plays Sarah's gay, hedonistic foster brother Felix, who has a ton of fun turning what could be a stock role into something memorable and credible, and Gavaris and Maslany have great chemistry.

The show's closest reference point would be something like Utopia. Both begin with a mystery that feels utterly obscure and impenetrable, then is revealed to be more credible, involving and relevant, not to mention ruthless. Both shows generate a lot of humour from their situations without sacrificing the danger and tension. So give it a go. And if you, like me, would never normally venture into the no-go area of BBC3, then you're in for a pleasant surprise.

• This article was amended on 20 September 2013. It said the show was set in New York, which was added at the editing stage. It was filmed in Toronto, although the city in the programme is never specified.